Quotes by writers about writing can teach, inspire and motivate us Last month we asked the question, Who’s your favorite author? This month we’ll look at what writers say about writing. What are your favorite writing quotes? My absolute favorite writing quote is the concise, exemplary advice to “Omit needless words.” It comes from the […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Working in any business is challenging and demanding work. Owning and running one is even harder. Daily activity seems, all too often, to consist of reacting to the urgency of the moment. There is little time to plan and few opportunities to look beyond the confines of the company walls. […]
Speed Can Be a Strength or a Weakness By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD How long does it take you to put a new client on service? How long should it take? I’m sure you can answer the first question quickly. And I imagine there might be a bit of angst in considering your response to […]
As writers, we must seek to learn and to teach When it comes to learning and sharing information, I developed a guiding principle to direct me along the way. I call it Peter’s Law of Reciprocity. Peter’s Law of Reciprocity states: “Everyone you meet knows something you don’t, so politely and tactfully learn what it […]
A Failure to Plan is Planning to Fail By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Before we say goodbye to this year and welcome in the next, we should take time to envision what we want next year to be like, to plan and to prepare so that it’s a really great year. First, I recommend you […]
We love some authors so much, that we buy every book they publish If you were to ask me who’s my favorite author, I’d shrug and say, “I don’t know.” However, that would be wrong. From my perspective, one author rises above all others: Robin Mellom. I’ve gushed about her in the past. I bought […]
Writers should consider just-in-time learning to round out their education I work at home. My office window looks out at the bus stop. Each school day I see kids waiting to get on the bus. And each afternoon the bus returns them home. They’re mostly excited, but more so when they’re learning for the day […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD As a publisher of trade magazines, I travel to conventions and industry shows. Before that, as a consultant, I traveled to my clients’ offices. Therefore, it may surprise you that I don’t like to travel, especially to fly—unpredictable, impersonal, and a loss of control. I am a homebody, perfectly content […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD We will celebrate Thanksgiving Day next week in the United States. And our friends to the north celebrated it last month. Aside from having a day off from work—not that anyone in the answering service industry ever gets a day off, especially holidays—Thanksgiving is a time for us to think […]
Speaking your punctuation when dictating slows you down, but it is possible to do So far I’ve only used dictation to write nonfiction. My next step is fiction. This becomes a little bit more complex because we must speak our punctuation. And dialogue requires much more of it. For example, here is how I would […]